Strong, silent enforcer had Chopper Read for a mentor

By Andrew Rule and Paul Millar

April 21, 2010 — 3.00am

HANDCUFFED and with his fingers clasped together, the man accused of bludgeoning to death the gangland killer Carl Williams showed no nerves in a video link-up with the Geelong Magistrates' Court yesterday.

Looking fit and comfortable, the 36-year-old, a member of a prison gang founded by Mark ''Chopper'' Read, said little in the video link from the Barwon Prison before he was remanded to appear, via video link, in the same court on July 23 for a committal mention.

The shaven-headed inmate is an enforcer for a gang whose members have terrorised fellow prisoners since the mid-1970s.

The present incarnation of the gang is known as Prisoners of War. Many of its members have the letters ''POW'' tattooed on their knuckles or arms.

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The gang started as the feared Overcoat Gang that dominated Pentridge Prison's H Division from 1975 until the early '90s, and has some similarity to the Aryan Brotherhood in US prisons.

Most of the Overcoat Gang have died violently, but survivors include its founder Read, the gunman Amos Atkinson, the murderer Greg Brazel, the robber Gordon ''Sammy'' Hutchinson and the bareknuckle bash artist Frankie Waghorn.

The man caught on security film bashing Williams to death on Monday is a living link with Read's original Pentridge gang, prison sources say.

They say the killer entered Pentridge as a teenager shortly before ''Chopper'' Read was released in late 1991, and was inducted into the gang because of his size and strength.

''He was a violent young hood. Very young but big, tall, athletic and muscled up,'' one former member of the gang recalled yesterday. Read ''handed him the reins'' before leaving Pentridge, he said.

Read's parting advice to the rising standover man had been to ''stay in one division and to bash all your enemies'' as they came through it.

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The original Overcoat Gang was so called because its members wore heavy overcoats made in the prison. The grey coats had blue patches stitched over the heart of the wearer front and back so that armed guards on prison towers could ''shoot to kill'' more easily in a riot or escape attempt. The bulky coats offered some protection from makeshift ''shivs'' and were ideal for hiding weapons.

The prisoner charged over Williams's death ''is a bit of a nutcase'' who could organise bashings in any part of the jail, a prison source said. He was one of two men with Williams when the drug dealer was attacked with an iron bar from an exercise bike.